1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to methods and systems for data processing, and more particularly, to systems and methods for processing data obtained during a radiation procedure.
2. Background of the Invention
Radiation therapy involves medical procedures that selectively expose certain areas of a human body, such as cancerous tumors, to doses of radiation. The purpose of the radiation therapy is to irradiate the targeted biological tissue such that undesirable tissue is destroyed. Radiation has also been used to obtain image of tissue for planning or treatment purposes.
During a radiation planning session, radiation treatment planning is performed before treatment radiation is delivered to a patient. This allows an accurate and precise dosage of radiation to be delivered to a patient. During the planning session, configuration data, such as location, size, and shape of a target object, may be acquired using a x-ray system. Images of the patient may also be acquired using an imaging device, such as a camera, so that a physiological movement of the target object can be monitored. The planning process then generates a radiation treatment plan based on a synchronization of the configuration data with the image data. Changes to the treatment plan for further optimization can also be developed during the planning session.
When the radiation treatment plan is determined, the radiation treatment plan can be verified before a full dose radiation delivery may be performed. During a radiation treatment planning verification session, the patient is irradiated with a low energy x-ray image beam to determine an image of a target region, and a high energy, low intensity radiation beam for generating radiation absorption data. While the patient is being irradiated with the image beam, operation data, such as radiation intensity or absorption data, gantry angle, and patient position are recorded and time stamped. The recorded operation data are then correlated with the image data at a later time to verify the radiation treatment plan.
During a radiation treatment session, a desired radiation dosage is delivered to the patient according to the verified radiation treatment plan, and operation data and image data may be obtained during the treatment session. The operation data may be associated with the image data at a later time to verify that a prescribed distribution and magnitude of radiation dose has been correctly delivered to the target region.
In current methods, the combining and/or associating of image data with operation data is not performed in real time. Operation data are generally captured using a first system, time stamped, and stored in a first memory, and image data are captured using a second system, time stamped, and stored in a second memory. The stored operation data and the stored image data are then interpolated and correlated with each other at a later time using a third system. As such, current methods require multiple systems to perform synchronization of image data and operation data, which may be difficult and costly to implement. In addition, since current methods require handling and processing of collected image data and operation data by a technician before they are synchronized, the collected data may be lost or misfiled due to human errors. Furthermore, correlating the image data with the operation data may be labor intensive, and may not be always accurate.
Accordingly, improved systems and methods for combining operation data with image data would be useful.